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Eclipse opens floodgates for Bank of Japan



Bank of Japan opens floodgates
This week, Haruhiko Kuroda, the new governor of the Bank of Japan, launched perhaps the boldest ever experiment by the central bank of an important country. It is not a revolution in monetary policy, since the BoJ is following the intellectual lead of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve. But it is a revolution in Japanese thinking and in the magnitude of the planned action. The Bank of Japan risks doing too much. But Japan already knows well the costs of doing too little. That lesson is one the European Central Bank may yet learn.
The BoJ has promised to turn Japan’s slow-motion deflation into inflation of 2 per cent within two years. To achieve this transformation it has now promised to raise purchases of government bonds from a monthly rate of Y2tn ($21bn) to one of Y7tn, to double the average maturity of new bond purchases to seven years and to double the monetary base to Y270tn by the end of 2014.



The upcoming lunar eclipse of 25 April is placed on the horizon axis at Tokyo giving it extra significance. The eclipse is also in  the Taurus-Scorpio axis – a polarity  associated with banks and monetary policies. Also, a Mars-Saturn opposition straddles the eclipse axis.

Caution is the keyword under a Mars-Saturn opposition. When action (Mars) meets resistance or fear (Saturn), some feel stopped in their tracks. Fear can prevent full functioning. Authority figures or historical precedents may discourage you now, actually reinforcing some feelings you are already having about yourself. Inner energies  (Mars) are struggling against your inhibitions (Saturn). But if you're disciplined and can tap  in to the core of this opposition responsibly, stay positive, and move forward with deliberation a tremendous amount of  energy will be available to you for constructive long-term accomplishment [1].

Haruhiko Kuroda (born October 25, 1944) the current Governor of the Bank of Japan is the architect of the  new looser monetary policy. He has a Sun (1sc) – Mars (7sc) conjunction trine Saturn (10cn). A Mars-Saturn trine would be a perfect combination for taking risks and accomplishing a difficult task. Kuroda assumed office on 20 March exactly on the Spring Equinox (Aries Ingress)  in which  Jupiter is placed in the 8th house of monetary policies. By nature, Jupiter is expansive and risk taking so that the new policy is not surprising. Progressing the Aries Ingress chart  to 4 April (the date the new policy was announced) brings Saturn to the Ascendant triggering the meaning of the Saturn-Jupiter-Pluto Yod. Saturn-Pluto can refer to facing restrictions because of hidden or self-destructive weaknesses while Jupiter at the apex provides the courage to take action for a broadening and freeing objective.



There are never any loose ends in astrology as we will see in this case too. The stars on the horizon axis give us the same message. On the Ascendant (27li37) is Izar of Bootes (28li18) while on the Descendant is Al Pherg (27ar). (Coincidentally, the same stars occupy the horizon axis for the current New Moon of 10 April)

Al Pherg, in the upright fish that marks cuspal Aries, is held or tied to Alrisha (Katain), the knot that binds our primordial past to our future. Al Pherg articulates the desire, effort and emergence process from the tormenting emotional and psychic forces common to sidereal Pisces. Al Pherg can indicate that one is almost there, but not quite, with a final barrier yet to be crossed before one can truly emerge. Something residual must be released or accepted, which can be from a long-established genetic, cultural or evolutionary history [2].

Izar, Epsilon of Bootes, impels us to become perfectly centered to take a leap of faith through a portal that can lead to a place of far greater beauty and fulfillment than we had known before [3].

Finally, since the eclipse is conjunct Kuroda’s Sun-Mars, here will look at the Sabian symbols [4] of the eclipse Moon  (Phase 216) and Kuroda’s radix Sun (Phase 212) to see that they tell us the same story in a beautifully pictorial way.

PHASE 212 (SCORPIO 2°): A DELICATE BOTTLE OF PERFUME LIES BROKEN, RELEASING ITS FRAGRANCE.

The accidental nature of opportunities that impel one to break away from a past, the remembrance of which is still poignant and cherished.

PHASE 216 (SCORPIO 6°): THE GOLD RUSH TEARS MEN AWAY FROM THEIR NATIVE SOIL.
This symbol dramatizes the capacity in man to tear himself away from the known and the familiar, gambling everything on a vision or dream.



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